by Laura Bates (2020)

2024 reads, 26/22:

“Troll. It’s such a silly little word. It makes it sound like a silly little problem. A ridiculous, pot-bellied, bright-haired ‘90s toy. Or a lumbering, stupid, green oaf, crouching slimily beneath a bridge. Neither one comes close to capturing the truth.”

Who remembers the first image of a black hole?

Okay, now who remembers Katie Bouman, the lead developer for the imaging algorithm used to create said image, who also became the target of online trolls and sexist attacks?

I remember this very well. I was on Reddit a lot more back then, as well as Twitter, and I remember seeing comments from tons of users spewing false facts and comments along the lines of “she claimed 100% of the credit” (she did not) or “it was her male colleague who actually wrote all the code” (he did not). Luckily, I never encountered the actual communities from where this hate was originating, and those types of comments were heavily downvoted when I saw them. But that was one of the first times I had seen “the manosphere” breach from the depths of the internet.

However, this is far from the only type of thing where this happens. Men Who Hate Women is about the genesis, growth, and real-world implications of said “manosphere” and the men who permeate it. It’s a tough read, but important nonetheless, as Bates’ research proves eye-opening in exposing not just what goes on in these communities, but more importantly, how young men and boys are finding themselves there. The rise of algorithms and feeds, tools designed to keep someone online as much as possible, is just as much of a recruiting technique as the actual men in these communities.

I don't tend to vibe with nonfiction, but the subject matter in this book is extremely important, and sadly relevant. Anyone remotely interested in gender equality, feminism, or even learning how seemingly normal men can find themselves in this community should read this; they’ll likely find this book a mixture of interesting, frightening, and eye-opening.

“Of course, it doesn’t all look like terrorism, murder, violence or even misogyny on the surface. It would be easier to catch if it did.”

#readingyear2024 #science

by Cixin Liu (2010)

2024 reads, 13/22

“In the eternal night of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, two civilizations had swept through like two shooting stars, and the universe had remembered their light.”

Again, keeping this review fairly light since it hinges on the events of the previous two novels in the trilogy. But man, oh man, what a way to end. This series will destroy you, and then put you back together again.

The story has evolved from Ye Wenjie first making contact with the Trisolarans, to the fate of the earth, the solar system, and the entire universe. Through space exploration, theoretical physics, and even fairy tales, Liu manages to weave a well-crafted story with scary sci-fi and hope for humanity. Apparently there’s lots of fan-written material out there for those who felt that this story was incomplete – but I didn’t feel that way at all, it ended exactly how it should have.

I really enjoyed the characters as well – I will be thinking of the story of Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming for a long time to come. Thomas Wade and 艾AA are also enjoyable to read as well, and they both complement Cheng Xin’s humanity with fierceness (albeit in different ways).

The Three-Body Problem was the prologue, The Dark Forest was the reaction, and Death’s End is the ultimate conclusion. This is an amazing science fiction trilogy, and I’m so happy that Netflix decided to renew and let the Game of Thrones team finish the series.

“Finally, a chain of organic molecules, trembling, split into two strands. The strands attracted other molecules around them until two identical copies of the original were made, and these split apart again and replicated themselves…. In this game of building blocks, the probability of producing such a self-replicating chain of organic molecules was so minuscule that it was as if a tornado had picked up a pile of metallic trash and deposited it as a fully-assembled Mercedes-Benz. But it happened, and so, a breathtaking history of 3.5 billion years had begun.”

#readingyear2024 #scifi #science #book2screen

by Cixin Liu (2008)

2024 reads, 11/22

“The stern of the ship faced the Solar System, where the sun was by now no more than a yellow star just a bit brighter than the rest. The peripheral spiral arm of the Milky Way lay in this direction, its stars sparse. The depth and expanse of deep space exhibited an arrogance that left no support for the mind or the eyes.”

Going to keep this review a bit short, since its plot hinges on the ending of the previous book in the trilogy, The Three Body Problem. But basically, The Dark Forest takes place almost immediately following the events of 3BP, and Liu pulls out all the punches for this one.

While 3BP stood out to me due to its mystery and storytelling, there’s less of this in TDF (since you already know the circumstances of everything going on). However, TDF excels not just in its more in-depth treatment of space sci-fi, but what was more interesting to me was watching humanity deal with the earth-shattering aftermath of 3BP.

“‘When twilight fades, you can see the stars. When dawn fades, all that’s left is…’ ‘All that’s left is the harsh light of reality.’”

While the story starts off a bit slowly, it quickly picks up, and its ending blew me away. At first, I found the new main character Luo Ji hard to like (his first act as Wallfacer was weird), but after some character development I quickly came to enjoy his presence on the page. My favorite character, Da Shi, also makes his return.

I usually end these reviews with who I might recommend the book to, but if you’ve read 3BP, then I don’t need to convince you to read this one. Now it’s time to end the trilogy…

“It’s a wonder to be alive. If you don’t understand that, how can you search for anything deeper?”

Netflix series addendum: I do hope Netflix picks up their 3BP adaptation for a second season. I would love to see some of the ideas in this book put to the big screen, and the Game of Thrones team seems like the ideal duo to undertake this.

#readingyear2024 #scifi #science #book2screen

by Cixin Liu (2006)

2024 reads, 9/22

“Can the fundamental nature of matter really be lawlessness? Can the stability and order of the world be but a temporary dynamic equilibrium achieved in a corner of the universe, a short-lived eddy in a chaotic current?”

What a wild ride. I don’t read much science fiction, and my only two standouts among those I have read were Neuromancer and Hitchhikers Guide. But The Three-Body Problem now also takes a place at the top of my favorite sci-fi books. And one thing that this book did for me that the others didn’t was encourage me to pick up more sci-fi in the future.

This book is engaging, but be warned, it’s one big prologue; many loose threads and characters come together nicely at the end to form one giant loose thread (so naturally I quickly picked up the second in the trilogy). The Neuromancer-like virtual reality game, the mysterious happenings to scientists around the world, and Operation Guzheng (if you know you know) were standout parts. Da Shi quickly became my favorite character of the book, being comedic relief while consistently saving the day. I also really enjoyed how the classic astrophysics problem of three gravitational bodies related to the plot – it wasn’t clear at first, but I loved the payoff.

“The seed of civilization remains. It will germinate and again progress through the unpredictable world of Three Body. We invite you to log on in the future.”

I actually started reading this before I realized the Netflix adaptation was coming out, which was some incredible timing. The show is great, but as usual, the book gets more involved and takes the time to really flesh out the story. If nothing else, watch the Netflix series, but I do recommend this book for anyone looking for some profound science fiction.

#readingyear2024 #scifi #science #book2screen

by Dava Sobel (1995)

2024 reads, 6/22

Some pre-reading before I attempt my next big novel, Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.

Before the era of satellites and GPS, determining longitude at sea was quite a challenge, so much so that £20,000 (almost half a million in US dollars today) was to be awarded to the person that could come up with a reliable method for doing so. Longitude details the many attempts and final success of this quest.

Except for the meaty parts, this wasn’t the most interesting book, and I felt it could have been cut down a bit (although less than 200 pages is already pretty short). Regardless, it was a quick enough read and gave some great background on both astronomy and navigation in the eighteenth century.

“The zero-degree parallel of latitude is fixed by the laws of nature, while the zero-degree meridian of longitude shifts like the sands of time.”

If you’re interested, this 10-minute YouTube video summarizes the entire story pretty well.

#readingyear2024 #history #science

by Douglas R. Hofstadter (1979)

2022 reads, 19/20:

“This is axiom”

The above quote is not from this book, but instead, the final lyric in the final song off Bon Iver’s 2011 album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver. These three words encapsulate everything that Justin Vernon was trying to say not only in that whole song, but the whole album: we are here, and in this place, we are self-evident. In math, an axiom is the strongest statement you can make, something that cannot be proved because of its self-evidence (for example the first equality axiom, which states $x = x$, i.e. a number equals itself). And much like I am comparing this foundational mathematical term to music, Hofstadter does the same in his book Gödel, Escher, and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid.

Hofstadter masterfully weaves Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, Bach’s fugues, and Escher’s drawings together to create a map between the neurological structure of the brain and the rise of artificial intelligence. His starting point is defining a ‘strange loop,’ a type of self-reference which leads you back to the original statement, and works from there. If you hold on for the whole ride, his final chapters provide an interesting and original take on minds and machines. In between these chapters lie dialogues between a slew of characters such as the tortoise and Achilles, which are not just entertaining, but also excellent at priming you for the ideas about to be introduced in the next chapter. Some did not enjoy the dialogues, but I thought they were some of the best parts of the book.

At times, this does read like a textbook, but it’s not dry or boring at all; Hofstadter is inviting us to try to get to the point before he gets there, which makes reading GEB almost conversational. I started to lose a bit of interest in the latter half of the Part II, solely because I am not super interested in genetics; to me, Hofstadter is at his best when he is writing about logic, paradoxes, and writing dialogues with hidden meanings. Others would disagree, however, as some really enjoy the neurological aspects, and don’t see the point of the math. And as I mentioned, you don’t really get to the crux of what Hofstadter wants to convey in this book until the final three chapters, which could turn off some people.

Anyone who has an interest in math, puzzles, computer science, neurology, genetics, or even art would at least moderately be interested in what Hofstadter is saying. By no means is a formal background in math required, you just need interest. The reason it took me so long to finish this was not because it was boring, in fact the opposite – his ideas need time to marinate before you go on. In this book, the journey was much better than the destination.

#readingyear2022 #math #science #physicallyowned

by Amitav Ghosh (2016)

“Similarly, at exactly the time when it has become clear that global warming is in every sense a collective predicament, humanity finds itself in the thrall of a dominant culture in which the idea of the collective has been exiled from politics, economics, and literature alike.”

As a quick overview, this book is divided into three sections: literature, history, and politics. Each section explores the relationship between that section’s theme, and (mainly) anthropogenic climate change. My thoughts on each section below:

From what I’ve seen, a lot of people enjoyed the first section, ‘Stories,’ which discusses how and why climate change is portrayed poorly in fiction. Personally, this section did not really capture my attention as well as the other two, but I will say that the connection Ghosh makes between the limitation of timescales in fiction and climate change is interesting; it just takes a bit long to get to that point (this is also the longest section in the book).

The second part, ‘History,’ is probably my favorite section, and one of the most interesting takes on climate change that I have ever read – Ghosh argues in great detail how imperialism (alongside capitalism) should be at the center stage in the rise of anthropogenic climate change in the 19th and 20th centuries. What cemented my love for this section was the well-thought-out argument of how the relationship between Asia and western countries (such as Britain and the US) perpetuated climate change into the 21st century.

The final section, ‘Politics,’ continues discussing imperialism as hidden driver of climate change, while simultaneously expanding on two well-known culprits, capitalism and denialism. This section concludes with another personal highlight, a comparison between the Paris Agreement of 2016 and Laudato si’, Pope Francis’ second encyclical, released in 2015.

I recommend this book to anyone who not only wants to take a deeper dive into human history and climate change, but to hear some intriguing takes on humanity’s relationship with the climate and each other.

#readingyear2021 #environment #govpol #science

by Oliver Sacks (1985)

"Classical science has no use for the concrete - it is equated with the trivial in neurology and psychiatry. It needs a 'romantic' science to pay it its full due - to appreciate its extraordinary powers...and dangers…"

What Oliver Sacks has attempted to do in this collection of essays is not only present some of the oddest neurological cases he's seen in his lifetime, but also convey his patients' hidden skills and talents, prior adversity and trauma, and ultimately, their perseverance (if applicable). As alluded to in the quote above, many require more than just a medical exam, IQ test, or prescription to truly understand their disorders and their pain.

As someone with no background in medicine at all, I was able to enjoy and appreciate most of the stories, without knowing the corresponding neurological jargon. However, while those with the proper background might recognize and appreciate his frequent (yet sudden) references to publications/people I've personally never heard of, to me it came off a bit jarring. Despite this, though, I was intrigued throughout, and walked away with a slightly better idea of the inner workings of the human psyche.

#readingyear2021 #physicallyowned #science